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Sunday, October 24, 2010

Recipe for Low-Sugar and Whole Wheat Pumpkin Muffins with Pecans

This week I got an e-mail from a reader named Sommer asking if I had a South Beach Diet Friendly recipe for pumpkin bread or pumpkin muffins. I can't always take recipe requests but Sommer's timing was great, because I'd recently written about Pumpkin Recipes for Cupcakes, Cookies, Cakes, Bread, and Muffins at BlogHer.com, and I'd been thinking about making pumpkin muffins or bread ever since. The muffins I came up with were adapted from a recipe in The Splenda World of Sweetness, a cookbook my blogging friend Amy Sherman sent me years ago, and happily they were a success from the first batch, which is pretty rare for me when it comes to baking! (Edit: Although the muffins were delicious with Splenda, now I would probably use Stevia in the Raw Granulated Sweetener.)

I used all white whole wheat flour and Splenda with just a touch of brown sugar, and the pumpkin puree in the muffins would be considered a "good carb" but I'd still say these muffins are something where you'd need to use portion control if you're trying to lose weight. The most South Beach Diet friendly version would be the ones made with all Splenda (or Stevia granulated), but even with the small amount of brown sugar I used they're lower in sugar and more healthful than most pumpkin muffin recipes you'll find. If you need something a bit less sweet to feed the little goblins on Halloween morning, this might be just the thing. (Of course you can also make the muffins with a combination of sugar and brown sugar if you don't care about making them lower in sugar.)

I used pecans, but I think walnuts or almonds would also be good in these muffins. Coarsely chop 2/3 cup nuts to go in the muffins and finely chop 3 T nuts for the topping.

Mix the finely chopped nuts with 2 T Splenda or Stevia Granulated and 1 T brown sugar to make the topping.

In another bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, 10 T Splenda or Stevia, 2 T brown sugar, oil, buttermilk, egg, egg white, and vanilla. (The mixture will be stiff.) Fold in the 2/3 cup chopped nuts.

Fill muffin cups with batter mixture, sprinkling a heaping teaspoon of the topping mixture over each muffin. Bake 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. (I baked my muffins exactly 27 minutes.)

These muffins were light and just slightly sweet, with a good flavor that reminded me of pumpkin pie. I put half my muffins in the freezer (to help with portion control) and I'll reheat them for about a minute in the microwave when I want to eat one later.

Using white whole wheat flour, grapeseed oil, and mostly Splenda or Stevia Granulated makes these muffins a better choice for the South Beach Diet than most pumpkin muffin recipes, but definitely a version made with all Splenda or Stevia would be best for the diet if you're actively trying to lose weight. Made with all sweetener, these muffins could be an occasional treat for phase 2 of the diet, and if you used partly brown sugar like I did, they're probably best saved for phase 3.

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46 comments:

Anonymous, I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly because I didn't want to calculate calories, carbs, or points, so if you need the nutritional information you'll have to calculate it yourself.

Okay, you've convinced me to give pumpkin puree another try. I'm sure the flavor is not so very different from the squash puree I love, though I'll bet either would be delicious in these muffins. Combining just a tiny bit of brown sugar with the Splenda is such a good idea.

Hey Kalyn,I started SBD today and when I was looking for information and recipes,stumbled upon your blog.I have linked you up,hope that's ok?Here's the link:http://littlediva.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/diet-day25-nablopomo/

South Beach doesn't recommend using butter at all, although occasionally I will use a very small amount in a sauce. I've been pretty happy using grapeseed oil for baking; I think I learned about that from Elana at Elana's Pantry.

This sounds like a very healthy and tasty autumn recipe! I would definitely want to try it using Kamut Wheat flour though since it has so many nutrients! Also - since our son has allergies, I would have to use egg replacer and omit the nuts but I think this will still be a winner in our home :) Thanks so much!

These make for a wonderfully satisfying & seasonal SB-friendly snack, with a cup of black coffee. Thanks again, Kalyn!A little sweet for my taste, so next time I will use less Splenda and/or increase the spices.

Janice, that's great! Thanks for letting me know they were kid-approved. (BTW, you could sub raisins for the nuts if you're making them for kids. I don't use raisins because they add to the sugar content for South Beach, but they would be great for kids.)

It's not that I "don't care about" being low sugar, it's just that I can't stand the taste of Splenda (and I'm not a picky eater either). I have a stevia plant and use stevia ice cubes in my smoothies and liquid stevia (stevia steeped in water) for my hot cereal. Even stevia has a taste that I had to mask in my hot cereal by adding plain unsweetened cocoa to the cereal. I haven't tasted it in my smoothies yet though.

I made this tonight with applesauce instead of oil as my husband is on Weight Watchers through his work. Not using oil cut down the points as the applesauce had no sugar & doesn't count. Made it with all Splenda and Splenda/brown sugar mix. Very tasty & I personally would like just a very little creme cheese on it to make it perfect!

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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